Health
How the judge who could ban the abortion pill won confirmation in the U.S. Senate
WASHINGTON — The U.S. District Court judge who could end more than two decades of legal access to medication abortion underwent extensive questioning about LGBTQ equality at his December 2017 confirmation hearing — and very little about his views on abortion. Matthew Joseph Kacsmaryk, appointed by former President Donald Trump earlier in 2017, spent much […]
Panel backs task force to study foster care for Native American children
PIERRE – A House panel on Monday endorsed a two-year task force to study Native American overrepresentation in South Dakota’s foster care system. Senate Bill 191 cleared the full Senate last week. It’s the only bill related to Native children in foster care to have survived past a committee hearing so far this session. The […]
Recreational marijuana is illegal, but its high-inducing cousins are widespread
Recreational marijuana is illegal in South Dakota – voters confirmed as much in November – but the next best thing is available from border to border. The 2018 Farm Bill legalized the cultivation of hemp. By extension, it legalized two cannabinoids called delta-8 and delta-10 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which occur naturally in tiny amounts in the […]
Doctors recount ‘heart-wrenching’ stories in new study on medical care post-Roe
Researchers at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) are trying to piece together how the end of Roe v. Wade has so far transformed pregnancy-related medical care in America, and the yet-to-be-released preliminary data are alarming, the lead principal investigator told States Newsroom in an exclusive interview. The team has already received dozens of […]
House passes bill to reimburse nursing homes, care facilities at 100%
The state House of Representatives passed a bill 44-25 on Wednesday that would annually adjust the reimbursement rate for community-based providers to 100% of the costs of caring for patients covered by programs such as Medicaid. Those providers include nursing homes, assisted living facilities and care facilities for people with developmental disabilities. That’s a 10 […]
Democratic governors in 20 states form reproductive rights alliance
Democratic governors from 20 states across the U.S., led by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, have formed a Reproductive Freedom Alliance to safeguard and improve abortion and reproductive health care access “in the face of an unprecedented assault by states hostile to abortion rights,” according to a joint statement. The announcement represents another divide in the […]
Rural hospitals gird for unwinding of pandemic Medicaid coverage
Donald Lloyd, CEO and president of St. Claire HealthCare in Morehead, Kentucky, has spent more than a year dealing with higher costs for food and medical supplies for his regional hospital. Now he’s trying to prepare for another financial hit — the loss of Medicaid reimbursements for treating people in rural Appalachia. “We are all […]
House committee kills three tax cut bills
PIERRE – The House Committee on Appropriations killed three of the tax cut bills introduced to the Legislature this session. The bills included one that would exempt feminine hygiene products, such as tampons, from the state sales tax; one that would exempt burial and cremation services from the state sales tax; and one that would […]
Attempt to block COVID vaccines from required school immunizations fails in committee
A bill aimed at preventing COVID-19 vaccines from becoming mandatory for children attending public schools in South Dakota failed to pass the state’s Senate Health and Human Services Committee on Wednesday. Sen. Julie Frye-Mueller, R-Rapid City – who was recently censured by the state Senate after she allegedly made harassing comments about vaccinating children to […]
It takes a village: Foster program is a new model of care for Indigenous children
LA PLANT, S.D. — Past a gravel road lined with old white wooden buildings is a new, 8-acre village dotted with colorful houses, tepees, and a sweat lodge. The Simply Smiles Children’s Village, in this small town on the Cheyenne River Reservation, is home to a program aimed at improving outcomes and reducing trauma for […]
Committee approves vaccine exemption bill amid misinformation, offensive language
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes offensive language, which has been included to accurately portray the content of a public legislative hearing. A South Dakota legislative committee approved a bill Tuesday that would establish a “conscience” exemption from COVID-19 vaccine mandates, after the committee hearing at the Capitol in Pierre disintegrated into a parade of misinformation […]
Attorneys general from Democratic-led states urge judge to keep abortion pill legal
WASHINGTON — Attorneys general from 21 Democratic-leaning states are calling on a Texas judge to keep the abortion pill on the market, rejecting claims anti-abortion medical groups made in a lawsuit that’s centered on the medication’s approval more than two decades ago. The latest brief in the case, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food […]